If you've seen the footage of the E3 demo of Rainbow Six: Vegas, you probably remember a scene taking place in a helicopter as Team Rainbow flies over the city of Las Vegas, the buildings and locations all bright and shiny below. In a new level we just checked out behind closed doors at Games Convention ("Dante's Casino), the introductory sequence is very familiar -- except instead of a pristine city down below (or at least as pristine as Vegas gets), the city was exploding with fires and damaged terrain.

Since this new level takes place late in the game, the city has clearly been overtaken to a certain extent by the terrorists you are trying to stop. It's a way of saying to the player that this conflict is getting out of hand and it's up to you to stop it from completely destroying the city.

The plot here is that terrorists have taken over the casino and are trying to acquire military weapons -- not exactly branching out for Rainbow Six, but a nice setup to keep the action escalating. You start after landing on the roof by working your way down into the guts of the tower, taking out various guys in what looks like a construction scene up top and then making your way down on the side by rappelling along a giant glass window. Once the player crashes through the window and takes out the enemies behind it, a giant (50 foot wide or so) bell from the top of the building comes crashing down through the interior, completely changing the building structure (and looking pretty cool as well).

That ties in with one of the features that impressed us most in the new demo -- the ability for rooms to look 'beat up' when you are done with them. Because of the realistic physics system and the extremely nice level of detail with the ground and blood textures, a room that has been destroyed with a few grenades and some gunfire looks completely destroyed when you are done with it.

The developers have put a large focus on the "XTOS" system that lets you set up your teammates in one location and then trigger an order to them remotely, which helps with all this destruction. In one scenario we witnessed, the player came across a room filled with a few guards but noticed a window in the upper left corner, so he went to that corner and set up his guys to blow through the room while he went around back and picked off all the enemies reacting to his teammates. When properly executed, this system allows players to clear a room in just a couple seconds, which gives off a nice strategic feel.

The developers claim that multiplayer details will be released "very shortly," so we can look for more on that front soon, and the game itself isn't too far off, so we expect to hear a lot more about Rainbow Six: Vegas in the next couple months.

When it comes to online multiplayer games, no tactical series has been better than the Rainbow Six franchise. Rainbow Six 3 and its semi-sequel follow-up, Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, were two of the best strategic action titles to ever hit online systems, so when we first heard that the core team's first next-gen follow-up would hit this November for the Xbox 360, PC and launch of the PlayStation 3, we began planning our tactics immediately. Yeah, knowing anything about the maps might have helped quite a bit, but that didn't stop up from dreaming.

We got our first taste of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas just a couple weeks ago, appropriately in everyone's favorite city of sin, Las Vegas. We've already written about the excellent looking single-player portion from the event, which is certainly worth a read as it's not only very promising but many of its core elements tie directly into why the multiplayer looks so good. Everything about the game plays much more naturally than basically any first-person shooter we've seen in the past, and when it comes to playing bullet-centric chess matches in close-quarter areas, this is paramount to a true next-generation experience.

See how your teammates grab cover while you take out the target?

One of the most important mechanics in any Rainbow Six title is the ability to move a team into a heavy-fire situation, take cover and safely take out the enemy without putting yourself into the open. Rainbow Six: Vegas allows for this in a number of new ways thanks to its cover system. No longer do you need to stare directly at a wall and then lean to one side to fire off some covered shots. Instead, the game allows you to place your back against wall as it pulls the camera out to a third-person view by holding a cover button. While this method works somewhat mechanically in other games that have tried this, Rainbow Six: Vegas makes this much more dynamic in that the held button toggles your cover state, so simply releasing it puts you instantly back into the first-person view for movement.

Firing works extremely well also as pressing the fire button alone will have you take a few blind shots, useful for covering fire for a squad mate or forcing an enemy into hiding, but not so great for actually taking anyone out. However, pressing either to the side or above cover will have you pop up and let you fire off some precision rounds, making it very natural to look around or over cover without fumbling with the controls. The last bit of this that makes the cover system work so well is that you aren't stuck to one side -- you can aim and move freely in this state, allowing you to switch sides or cover placement with ease.

Rain death from above -- literally -- with the new rappelling mechanic.

Along with this extremely quick and dynamic cover system, the way that Rainbow Six multiplayer flows will also be quickened by the inclusion of rappelling. You're able to drop down the sides of buildings and move slowly into position, crashing through a window to quickly overtake your enemies, or even quick rappel when inside to drop to a lower level almost instantly. Rappelling requires that you find specific rappelling points to use your rope, but it looks as if they'll be reasonably scattered around levels to allow for this.

For game types, Rainbow Six: Vegas will include a number of multiplayer modes, including six adversarial options. Some of these will be new to the series while others are classic types taken from previous games, including Raven Shield on the PC. While we aren't privy all of the modes that will be in the final game, we know it'll include Retrieval, Survival, Sharpshooter and the team variants for each. We're told that along with support for 16 players online, you'll also be able to play split-screen so that two people can go online on a single console.

One of the new modes in the game is entitled Attack and Defend. This is somewhat similar to the basic Counter-Strike setup in that the anti-terrorists will need to defuse a bomb, rescue hostages, extract an item or perform something similar. These objectives will be map-specific to make the best use of each level's layout.

Rainbow Six: Vegas will ship with 10 maps, all built specifically for multiplayer. Nine of the maps will be new, with the classic City Streets map returning from Rainbow Six 3. While the layout will remain identical to its original appearance, you will find rappelling points along the bases on either side, making for a quick escape from the top floor directly into the heat of the battle. This may not be the smartest move when the other team has set up shop at sniper points across the map, but it means you can get right into the open as soon as the round starts. As for other classic maps, Ubisoft has said that possible future downloadable content may bring other oldies but goodies to the game. Of course, nothing is official or promised on this front, but we can only hope for the Presidio and its suicide doors.

As for online co-op, the game will include the always-excellent Terrorist Hunt mode and span 23 maps. You can create a unique character for use here, which brings us to Ubisoft's Persistent Elite Creation 2.0.

The facial editor should really put players into the game.

While Rainbow Six: Lockdown introduced this concept, Rainbow Six: Vegas aims to perfect it. You'll be able to create a customized character for online play, unique look, uniform, weapons load-out and all. The facial system will actually work with the Xbox 360's Vision camera to map your face, and from what we've seen, it works great. Details on whether the PS3 or PC versions will offer similar functionality is up in the air, but it looks like this'll probably be a unique feature to the 360.

After you've picked your character's face, you're able to fully customize his or her uniform and gear. You can choose from multiple different types of camouflage and helmets, and outfit your character with an extremely wide variety of ammo packs, backpacks, protective shields and more. Luckily, these items won't affect your abilities during play as that would make things unfair, but you can customize your character to properly reflect your play style, which is very cool.

On top of this, you'll earn experience while playing online to unlock new items, gear and weapons. The new weapons and gadgets are specifically designed to not be better than the starter equipment, and are only there to give you more options. The team wants to make sure that everyone is always on a level playing field, regardless of how many times they've been online, while also rewarding players with more customization options for those who play all the time.

Prepare to choose from a ton of weapon and equipment options.

Everything about Rainbow Six: Vegas' multiplayer looks undoubtedly good aside from one questionable aspect: the health system. Like the single-player game, rather than using a health meter, your vision will reflect how much damage you've taken, but taking cover for a bit will bring you back to 100%. Our worry is that this could allow for an average player to much more easily take out another team on his own as they'll be able to recover after an encounter. Previously, if a Survival round came down to four-on-one, it was basically a lost cause. If the lone team member somehow mounted a comeback, it was an amazing thing. This time around, it'll be much more common, making each death on your team carry a little less weight. Our hope is that while it's not in there presently, the team will include a server option to go back to the "classic" health system. We're told that the server options allow for immense customizability, so adding one more option certainly sounds doable.

Aside from our slight worry about the health system, Rainbow Six: Vegas' multiplayer portion looks fantastic. It's even more dynamic and natural than it's ever been, and the fact that it carries next-gen visuals is only icing on the cake. The game is set to ship this November for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

San Francisco - October 5, 2006 ? Kicking off the countdown to the game's release, Ubisoft announced today that a single player playable demo of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas for the Xbox 360 will be made available to consumers. The Xbox 360 demo will be available exclusively this month as part of the December issue of Official Xbox Magazine in the U.S., on sale at newsstands on October 24th. The demo will be made available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace in November.

The single player demo features part of the "Dante's Casino" level of the single player mission. Players will Observe, Plan and Assault (O.P.A.) their way through the Gothic-themed casino that is under construction and believed to be a hideout for the terrorist leaders.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas will ship worldwide in November 2006 for the Xbox 360 video game system from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and the PC.